FIDDLE STICKS! nonsense.
FIDDLER, or FADGE, a farthing.
FIDDLER, a sixpence.—_Household Words_, No. 183.
FIDDLER, a sharper, a cheat; also one who dawdles over little matters,
and neglects great ones.
FIDDLERS’ MONEY, a lot of sixpences;—6d. was the remuneration to
fiddlers from each of the company in old times.
FIDDLING, doing any odd jobs in the streets, holding horses, carrying
parcels, &c., for a living. Among the middle classes, FIDDLING means
idling away time, or trifling; and amongst sharpers, it means gambling.
FID FAD, a game similar to chequers, or drafts, played in the West of
England.
FIDLUM BEN, thieves who take anything they can lay their hands upon.
FIELD-LANE-DUCK, a baked sheep’s head. _Field-lane_ is a low London
thoroughfare, leading from the foot of Holborn-hill to the purlieus of
Clerkenwell. It was formerly the market for stolen pocket handkerchiefs.
FIG, “to FIG a horse,” to play improper tricks with one in order to
make him lively.
FIG, “in full FIG,” _i.e._, full dress costume, “extensively got up.”
FIGURE, “to cut a good or bad FIGURE,” to make a good or indifferent
appearance; “what’s the FIGURE?” how much is to pay? FIGURE-HEAD, a
person’s face.—_Sea term._
FILCH, to steal, or purloin. Originally a cant word, derived from the
FILCHES, or hooks, thieves used to carry, to hook clothes, or any
portable articles from open windows.—_Vide Decker._ It was considered a
cant or Gipsey term up to the beginning of the last century. _Harman_
has “FYLCHE, to robbe.”
FILE, a deep, or artful man, a jocose name for a cunning person.
Originally a term for a pickpocket, when TO FILE was to cheat or
rob. FILE, an artful man, was used in the thirteenth and fourteenth
centuries.
FILLIBRUSH, to flatter, praise ironically.